A Brief Description of Sermon Preparation

I love this paragraph by Kent Hughes from his article, "Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public Worship," in the ESV Study Bible:

This is what should routinely happen to the preacher: the message should work its way through his whole intellectual and moral being as he prepares for and practices the proclamation of God's Word. When the message has affected him deeply, then he is ready to preach. Sermon preparation is twenty hours of prayer. It is humble, holy, critical thinking. It is repeatedly asking the Holy Spirit for insight. It is the Word penetrating into the depths of the preacher's own soul. It is ongoing repentance. It is utter dependence. It is a singing heart.

A Hymn for Afflicted and Doubting Hearts

Pensive, Doubting, Fearful Heart
John Newton, 1725-1807

Based on Isaiah 41:10, 14; 54:4-11

Pensive, doubting, fearful heart,
Hear what Christ the Savior says;
Every word should joy impart,
Change thy morning into praise.
Yes, he speaks, and speaks to thee,
May he help thee to believe;
Then thou presently wilt see
Thou hast little cause to grieve:

Fear thou not, nor be ashamed;
All thy sorrows soon shall end,
I, who heaven and earth have framed,
Am thy Husband and thy Friend;
I, the High and Holy One,
Israel's God by all adored,
As thy Savior will be known,
Thy Redeemer and thy Lord.

For a moment I withdrew,
And thy heart was filled with pain;
But my mercies I'll renew;
Thou shalt soon rejoice again;
Though I seem to hide my face,
Very soon my wrath shall cease;
'Tis but for a moment's space,
Ending in eternal peace.

Though afflicted, tempest-tossed,
Comfortless awhile thou art,
Do not think thou canst be lost,
Thou art graven on my heart;
All thy wastes I will repair;
Thou shalt be rebuilt anew;
And in thee it shall apear
What the God of love can do.

Celebrating MLK Day

Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech is still one of the great masterpieces of American oratory.



And his Letter from a Birmingham Jail is still one of the great masterpieces of American Christian ethics.

Rend Every Veil That Shades Thy Face

Chained to the World, To Sin Tied Down
Augustus Toplady, 1740-1778

Chained to the world, to sin tied down,
In darkness still I lie;
Lord, break my bonds, Lord, give me wings,
And teach me how to fly.

Instruct my feeble hands to war,
In me Thy strength reveal,
To put my every lust to death,
And fight Thy battles well.

Rend every veil that shades Thy face,
Put on Thine helmet, Lord;
My sin shall fall, my guilt expire,
Beneath Thy conquering sword.

Thou art the mighty God of hosts,
Whose counsels never fail;
Be Thou my glorious Chief, and then
I cannot but prevail.

John Murray on Our Hope in the Face of Death

The following is an except from a letter written by John Murray to Valerie Knowlton, the woman who would eventually become his wife, on the occasion of her grandmother's death:

How real is death, and how dismal except as its darkness is illumined by the hope of resurrection to life! It is as we look death squarely in the face that the grace and power of the Savior take on new meaning. How tawdry are all human attempts to dress it up! The light and faith of Jesus alone can cast a halo of joy and hope around it. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, and only they! There is nothing that any person can place between himself or herself and the damnation that sin demands, but the merit, blood, righteousness, mediatorship, and intercession of the risen and glorified Redeemer.

--Taken from The Life of John Murray, Iain Murray 

The Earthly End of a Life Well Lived

The Earthly End of a Life Well Lived
Justin Wainscott

For Bobby Newton

The earthly end
of a life well lived
should, in my opinion,
be marked by
both tears and smiles.

Indeed, one mark of a
beloved man must surely be
that the sounds heard
at his funeral are a mixture
of crying and laughing.

Crying, because he will
most certainly be missed.
And laughing, because he is
remembered so fondly.

I know that's why
I've shed tears today.
But it's also why I'm smiling,
even as I wipe away the tears.

So farewell, my friend,
until we meet again
in that place where all our crying
will be turned into laughing.

Turn My Tears to Praise

Salvation, Oh, Melodious Sound
Phillip Doddridge, 1702-1751

Salvation, oh, melodious sound,
To wretched, dying men!
Salvation that from God proceeds,
And leads to God again.

Rescued from hell's eternal gloom,
From fiends, and fires, and chains;
Raised to a paradise of bliss,
Where love triumphant reigns.

But, oh, may a degenerate soul,
Sinful and weak as mine,
Presume to raise a trembling eye
To blessings so divine?

The luster of so bright a bliss
My feeble heart o'erbears;
And unbelief almost perverts
The promise into tears.

My Savior God, no voice but Thine
These dying hopes can raise;
Speak Thy salvation to my soul,
And turn its tears to praise.

My Savior God, this broken voice,
Transported shall proclaim;
And call on the angelic harps,
To sound so sweet a name.

Light First, Then Heat: What Worship Leaders Today Can Learn from Isaac Watts

This excerpt from Douglas Bond's new book on Isaac Watts is a needed reminder for those who lead God's people in public worship:

Watts understood that "our passions are intensely directed toward material things but are hardly moved by the most important discoveries of faith." He was warring against the stale lifeless singing in worship in his youth, and he rightly wanted to see emotion and passion, as we do, in sung worship. He knew that passions "are glorious and noble instruments of the spiritual life when under good conduct." But here is where Watts is a counter voice to many well-meaning worship leaders today: he knew that passions "are ungovernable and mischievous energies when they go astray." He grasped - and so must we - that it is the business of church leaders both "to assist the devout emotions" and "to guard against the abuse of them." Centuries before the invention of the electric bass, Watts warned church leaders: "Let him not begin with their emotions. He must not artfully manipulate" their passions and feelings until he has first "set these doctrines before the eye of their understanding and reasoning faculties. The emotions are neither the guides to truth nor the judges of it." He argued that since "light comes before heat...Christians are best prepared for the useful and pious exercise of their emotions in the spiritual life who have laid the foundations in an ordered knowledge of the things of God."

In the very best of Watts' hymns, he combines both emotion and knowledge. But for Watts, it is always light first, then heat. The feeling of wonder, the emotion of profound gratitude, the escalating thrill of adoration and praise always follow the objective propositional exploration of the doctrines of the gospel. For Watts, the doxological always follows the theological....We know this not because Watts said so. Watts discovered it from divine revelation. Hebrew poetry in the Bible can be deeply passionate, even erotic, and the Psalms are rich with thrilling emotion, but it is always light first, then heat.

--Douglas Bond, The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts  

Recommended Books to Read

At the beginning of each year, I try and provide our church with a recommended reading list of what I consider to be some of the best books published in the previous year. The list includes a few books from various genres and covers a number of different categories.

To see this year's list, go here and click on the link at the bottom of the page.

A Prayer for the New Year

From The Valley of Vision:

O Lord,
Length of days does not profit me
except the days are passed in Thy presence,
in Thy service, to Thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides,
sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from Thee,
but may rely on Thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth Thy praise;
testify Thy love,
advance Thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with Thee, O Father, as my harbor,
Thee, O Son, at my helm,
Thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to Thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me Thy grace to sanctify me,
Thy comforts to cheer,
Thy wisdom to teach,
Thy right hand to guide,
Thy counsel to instruct,
Thy law to judge,
Thy presence to stabilize.

May Thy fear be my awe,
Thy triumphs my joy.